---
title: Plain ruby mode
description: Use Honeybadger's Ruby gem in plain Ruby applications without Rails or other frameworks.
url: https://docs.honeybadger.io/lib/ruby/getting-started/plain-ruby-mode/
---

In the Rails world it’s pretty much expected that when you install a gem it’s going to automatically integrate with your application. For instance, many gems provide their own [Railtie](http://edgeapi.rubyonrails.org/classes/Rails/Railtie.html) to run their own code when Rails initializes. The honeybadger gem fully embraces this approach by automatically detecting and integrating with as many 3rd-party gems as possible when it’s required:

```ruby
require 'honeybadger'
```

Some Rubyists prefer to roll their own integrations, however. They may want to avoid 3rd-party [Monkey patching](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_patch), while others aren’t using any of the libraries we integrate with and would rather report errors themselves using `Honeybadger.notify`, avoiding unnecessary initialization at runtime.

To use Honeybadger without the integrations, simply `require 'honeybadger/ruby'` instead of the normal `require 'honeybadger'`. You will need to configure the gem from Ruby using `Honeybadger.configure` as *honeybadger.yml* and environment variable initialization are also skipped:

```ruby
require 'honeybadger/ruby'


Honeybadger.configure do |config|
  config.api_key = "PROJECT_API_KEY"
end


at_exit do
  # Wait for asynchronous error notifications before shutting down.
  Honeybadger.stop
end


begin
  # Failing code
rescue => exception
  Honeybadger.notify(exception)
end
```

See the [API Reference](https://www.rubydoc.info/gems/honeybadger) for additional methods you can use to integrate Honeybadger with your Ruby project manually.

---

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